Choosing Peace

My head is just swirling with excitement after my devo time this morning! So I thought I would share! 

I am studying 2 different devotionals at the moment. Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and another one online called She Reads Truth. www.shereadstruth.com (doing the blog from my phone- that's how excited I am to share! And I'm not sure how to do links yet. No time to figure it out... I just want this excitement outta me!!!)

Two verses hit me hard today:

But he was wounded for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his stripes we are healed. 

-Isaiah 53:5

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

-Exodus 33:14

When I read the first one this is how I read it: HE was wounded for MY transgressions. HE was crushed for MY iniquities. HE was chastised to bring ME peace. And yet I am HEALED?!? That hit me so hard. He was wounded, crushed and chastised but I am the one who needs healing? After that hit me in the face I realized what He offers me. He offers me peace and healing and what do I do with that? I choose to let hurt and resentment and problems take up the space in my heart. Yes. How selfish? 

Que the 2nd key verse in Exodus from above. He is always with me but when I CHOOSE to be in His Presence He gives me rest (aka peace.) 

He went through agonizing physical pain to give me that peace and all I have to do is choose to accept it? It's mine to take and yet my flesh chooses to hurt? We all have situations in our lives that hurt us, mine are no different than yours. But Jesus is offering us peace, not problems. In the words of Queen Elsa from Frozen (seriously Peyton's favorite... Ok and mine.)... Just "let it go." Lay those problems at his feet. He was wounded, crushed and chastised so that HE can take my problems so that I can have peace. All I have to do is CHOOSE to be in HIS PRESENCE and lay everything at His feet. Done (for today).

I know some of you might be going "duh, I got that. Moving on to the next blog." But this morning my quiet time hit me with a childlike faith. It was simple. It all fit together in a neat little package, and I wanted to share just in case there was 1 person who needed it simplified for them today. (Like I clearly needed.)

Thank you for reading. Xoxo Lauren